On Jun 2, 9:44 pm, (Henry Spencer) wrote:
In article ,
John Doe wrote:

Sorry, I just can't buy that. Not when he's so visibly unenthusiastic
about it: he hardly ever mentions it in speeches, and he's repeatedly
failed to request even the modest funding levels he originally promised.

But it was the President of the USA that announcedm with great fanfare,
all those promises of returing shuttle and developping the CEV that
would enable man to go to the moon and to Mars.

Uh, no, with very minor fanfare. This *wasn't* a big deal; the President
of the USA announces lots of things. The way he announces something with
great fanfare is to give the first speech about it to a joint session of
Congress. The way he show that something is important to him is that he
keeps mentioning it and asks Congress for lots of money for it.

The fact that he has since not mentioned this and not given it any
funding or priority only outlines that the real goal was different.

"Never ascribe to malice what can readily be explained by stupidity."
Presidents make lots of compromises, and this undoubtedly was one too.
There's no reason to suppose that he was ever gung-ho about it, and
therefore no reason to look for hidden motives behind his more recent
neglect of it.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

The problem is that 1) the American people dont care ANYTHING about
going back to the Moon or really doing any human spaceflight program...
2) the administration has no real idear about how to integrate a space
effort with federal dollars into some attempt to create a private
sector which can stand independent of the federal dole and 3) the only
consitutency for this is well the pigs at the trough...and that
includes the federal government agency.

If I recall correctly when he was Gov, Bush didnt pay a single visit
to the JSC...so his interest personally isnt that high...and his
advisors have demonstrated time and time again...two dimensional
vision in terms of "vision" and one dimnensional thinking in terms of
execution of policies.

The odd thing is that Bush has about 8 more months as President...oh
he stays in the saddle until Jan 20 2009...but in 8 months or so there
will likely be a Dem and GOP nominee and the "future" is going to
quickly start shifting to them.

Robert